There's An 11-Day Hole In Snowden's Story About Hong Kong

Edward Snowden says that he wanted the U.S. to know where he was
after he arrived in Hong Kong.

But U.S. authorities still don't know what he did for the first
11 days after his arrival.

"That whole period was very carefully planned and orchestrated,"
Snowden told the Guardian. "There was no risk of compromise.
... And I
didn’t cover my traces [in Hong Kong]. I only tried to
avoid being detected in advance of travel ... on the
other side I wanted them to know where I was at. I wanted them to
know."

In his book,
Greenwald writes that Snowden "arrived in Hong Kong from Hawaii
on May 20, checking into the Mira Hotel under his own name."

And Snowden
told Vanity Fair that “I used a personal credit
card so the government could immediately verify that I was
entirely self-financed [and] independent."

But Edward Jay
Epstein of The Wall Street Journal went
to Hong Kong and confirmed that Snowden didn't check into the
Mira Hotel until June 1, which was a couple of days before he met
with journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.

"Mr. Snowden
would tell Mr. Greenwald on June 3 that he had been 'holed up' in
his room at the Mira Hotel from the time of his arrival in Hong
Kong. But according to inquiries by Wall Street Journal reporter
Te-Ping Chen, Mr. Snowden arrived there on June 1," Epstein
reported. "I confirmed that date with the hotel's employees. A
hotel security guard told me that Mr. Snowden was not in the Mira
during that late-May period and, when he did stay there, he used
his own passport and credit card."

Epstein also cited a source familiar with the Defense
Intelligence Agency report on the Snowden affair, that "U.S.
investigative agencies have been unable to find any credit-card
charges or hotel records indicating his whereabouts" between May
20 and June 1.

"To answer the
question in three words: I don't know where he was for these 11
days," Epstein said in an
interview. "It's very important because if we knew where he
was, then we'd know who he went to see in Hong Kong."

Strangely, no
one seems to know — even though Snowden says he made it
obvious.